Optimal packings of bounded degree trees

Abstract

We prove that if $T_1,\dots ,T_n$ is a sequence of bounded degree trees such that $T_i$ has $i$ vertices, then $K_n$ has a decomposition into $T_1,\dots ,T_n$. This shows that the tree packing conjecture of Gyárfás and Lehel from 1976 holds for all bounded degree trees (in fact, we can allow the first $o(n)$ trees to have arbitrary degrees). Similarly, we show that Ringel's conjecture from 1963 holds for all bounded degree trees. We deduce these results from a more general theorem, which yields decompositions of dense quasi-random graphs into suitable families of bounded degree graphs. Our proofs involve Szemerédi's regularity lemma, results on Hamilton decompositions of robust expanders, random walks, iterative absorption as well as a recent blow-up lemma for approximate decompositions.